Shrinking is not delivering enough cost savings, said Maria Marced, President of TSMC Europe, opening the IEF2011 conference in Seville this morning, if sufficient cost reductions are to be achieved, a larger wafer size is required in addition to continued scaling..
Whereas the move from 200mm to 300mm achieved 30% cost savings, TSMC reckons the move from 300mm to 450mm will achieve 60% cost savings.
TSMC’s fab 12 will have the company’s first 450mm pilot line in 2013-14, said Marced, and its first 450mm production fab will be in Fab 15 in 2015-16.
TSMC is looking to introduce a 20nm process with considerably improved characteristics than its 28nm process in Q3 2012, added Marced.
The 20nm process will deliver around twice the density of the 28nm process with innovative patterning and layout styles, and it will require 25% less switching power relative to 28nm HP and HPM. The move to finfet is planned at 14nm.
TSMC’s 28nm adoption is happening faster than 40nm was adopted, said Marced, with over 20 28nm tape-outs so far.
The $7.4bn capex in 2011 will add 20% to total capacity bringing it to 13.6bn eight inch wafer equivalents by the end of the year. The plan is to double capacity over the next five years.
